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What I don't get about the recent hype is that jobs have been vanishing for thousands of years. The oft repeated statistic is that over 90% of the US population

What I don't get about the recent hype is that jobs have been vanishing for thousands of years. The oft repeated statistic is that over 90% of the US population were farmers 100 years ago. Is 90% of the population out of work? As machines take over low level jobs (as they have for thousands of years) humans will continue to migrate into positions where their skills are still needed. Quality of living will continue to rise as a result. The only real danger is singularity, and it's a danger to all of us, not just the people at the bottom. If an AI was truly better at every job why would the people at the top even be in charge? Machination will continue to benefit society and humankind until an increasingly worrying singularity results in everyone being out of work, and likely, the extinction of our species

AndrewKemendo 10y ago
jobs have been vanishing for thousands of years. Not at all. The diversity of occupations between 700BC - 1800AD were not dissimilar. The predominance of employed men were in farming/fishing, or as craftsmen. Women had no occupations, and slaves and elites ("doctors", "lawyers" etc...) were in the minority that fell outside of these two primary occupations. The only real danger is singularity, and it's a danger to all of us, not just the people at the bottom. Right, well the goal is to be there in <100 years. and likely, the extinction of our species Is that worse than going extinct in a few 100,000 years? What's the difference of when?
googi23 10y ago
I think you have a very myopic view of history. Things have never changed this quickly in known history. This is similar to how Anthropocene is killing of animal populations because they just can't adapt fast enough. Industrial revolution somehow made it through via interesting social and market manipulations; it's not clear what it'll be this time.
- mdpopescu 10y ago
  > Things have never changed this quickly in known history Reminds me of Alvin Toffler's warning that the amount of information was growing far too quickly for people to be able to assimilate it... that was back in the 80s, with no web, no Wikipedia, no Youtube... People will adapt. We're good at it.

AndrewKemendo 10y ago

jobs have been vanishing for thousands of years. Not at all. The diversity of occupations between 700BC - 1800AD were not dissimilar. The predominance of employed men were in farming/fishing, or as craftsmen. Women had no occupations, and slaves and elites ("doctors", "lawyers" etc...) were in the minority that fell outside of these two primary occupations. The only real danger is singularity, and it's a danger to all of us, not just the people at the bottom. Right, well the goal is to be there in <100 years. and likely, the extinction of our species Is that worse than going extinct in a few 100,000 years? What's the difference of when?

googi23 10y ago

I think you have a very myopic view of history. Things have never changed this quickly in known history. This is similar to how Anthropocene is killing of animal populations because they just can't adapt fast enough. Industrial revolution somehow made it through via interesting social and market manipulations; it's not clear what it'll be this time.

mdpopescu 10y ago
> Things have never changed this quickly in known history Reminds me of Alvin Toffler's warning that the amount of information was growing far too quickly for people to be able to assimilate it... that was back in the 80s, with no web, no Wikipedia, no Youtube... People will adapt. We're good at it.